1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transaction tool management. More particularly, the present invention relates to integrating change management with transaction tool management for transaction tools used in a communications network.
2. Background Information
Transaction tools are instruments issued by a third party to facilitate transactions by “vouching” for a holder's identity and/or trustworthiness. Accordingly, transaction tools are used to authenticate the identity or trustworthiness of a bearer. Transaction tools are increasingly being managed for issuers and recipients by management systems. As an example, for an issuer of credit cards, a management system may facilitate day-to-day transactions by verifying credit availability. Additionally, for an issuer of digital certificates, a management system may facilitate day-to-day transactions by authenticating the validity of a digital certificate. Furthermore, from a recipient standpoint, a corporation may use a management system to manage digital certificates installed by employees on computers in the corporation's network. However, while the transaction tool management systems are available for transaction tools, the transaction tool management systems do not provide change management functionality for managing lifecycle events for transaction tools.
Change management is a term for the management of lifecycle events for hardware and software installed in a network. Alternatively, change management may be identified as component resource management or any other management system that provides the functionality of the change management systems described herein. As an example, Vantive System 8.0.2 from Vantive Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., can be customized to generate problem reports and request lifecycle changes to hardware and software used in a local computer network. Other software used for change management includes ProblemTracker from NetResults Corporation of Palo Alto, Va. In a typical change management system, each requested change requires manual input and human interaction, which may be an extraordinary burden in a large network with numerous pieces of hardware and software. For example, the Vantive system records changes and, where appropriate, generates requests for approval of changes which require the approval of particular managers. The approvals are required because, in some circumstances, the requested change will, e.g., incur costs or require that a component of the local computer network be taken out of service.
Change management systems, if provided at all, are provided separately from the transaction tool management systems. Further, even if a change management system is provided, it is not integrated with a transaction tool management system. As an example, the installation of an X.509 digital certificate on a server may only be recorded in a change management system if the server needs to be restarted as part of the process. However, another lifecycle event involving a transaction tool may not be recorded in the change management system. The result is that lifecycle events and changes which could be addressed automatically using an integrated system are instead individually managed on a case-by-case basis using only a change management system.
When such lifecycle events for transaction tools are not coordinated (i.e., managed), the ability of a corporation to ensure the availability of a network is jeopardized. However, a change control coordinator is not even always aware of such lifecycle events when a network includes numerous hardware and software components and entries for changes are recorded manually. Accordingly, a need exists to integrate change management into transaction tool management, so that appropriate notifications can be automatically made using the information and functionality of a transaction tool management system.
As an example, when a recipient renews an X.509 certificate on a computer (e.g., a server or personal computer) in a local network, the computer may require restarting/rebooting. Therefore, a request for such a change is logged in a change management system such as Vantive, and notifications are sent to managers so that approvals can be obtained. Generating and processing such requests for a network with numerous computers is inefficient, particularly when a transaction tool management system is already aware of an impending expiration for the digital certificate to be renewed such that a request to renew a digital certificate could be generated automatically. Accordingly, if the information available to a transaction tool management system were to be provided to a change management system, resources could be used more efficiently. In particular, integrating transaction tool management and change management will reduce the need for human interaction in implementing lifecycle changes. Accordingly, a need exists for integration of transaction tool management with change management.
To solve the above-described problems, a system is provided for transaction tool management integration with change management.